Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll Replaced by Sex, Drugs, and Mortgage Rates

“Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll Replaced by Sex, Drugs and Mortgage Rates”

That should be the newspaper headings across the planet. But it’s not. So I decided to make it one.

“Bloggers Attacked by Sex, Drugs and Mortgage Rates”

Is that a better attention getting headline?

The reality is that bloggers and websites with comments enabled, are vulnerable to comment spam attacks. Generally, the attackers leave comment spam promoting sex, drugs, and mortgage rates.

I’ve talked before about tackling comment spam on your blog. After reviewing several dozen blogs recently, I see many of you haven’t gotten the message yet. So I’m going to make it even simpler with this 3 step approach to controlling and fighting back comment spam.

1. Get WordPress
When reviewing a post on a blog and scrolling down to comments, if I see comment spam in the comments, I know, without looking further, that they are not using WordPress. WordPress out of the box does a great job battling comment spam. If you need more, then add more comment spam protection with WordPress Plugins like Bad Behavior and Spam Karma 2. Comment spam is stopped at the door and any that slips in under the door is snatched from view immediately. If you are using WordPress, then skip steps 2 and 3. If you aren’t using WordPress, say hello to comment spam and proceed to steps 2 and 3.

2. Check Comments Constantly
Your blogging software should showcase your comments in an administrative menu. Be sure and check your comments frequently, deleting all the bad ones. This can be time consuming and multiple clicking can put wear and tear on your mouse hand and arm, so make sure your blogging software has a mass editing mode that allows one or two click select and delete of all the evil that may attack your comments. Depending upon how many posts you have, how frequently you post, and how much time you have to dedicate to your blog, I recommend checking your comments at least 3 times a week.

3. Add Comment Spam Protection
If you are not using WordPress with its built-in and easy-to-add comment spam protection features, then find out what add on protection your blogging tool offers. It might offer some form of spam word filters, where you add the spam words that will trigger the comment being put into moderation. Or it might have extensions, add-ons, or plugins that you can install on your blog to increase protection. Find out what is available and add it to your site for your protection, as well as your reader’s protection.

Reading about breast enlargements, penis enhancers, drugs to boost your sex life or grow more hair on your head, invitations to waste your money gambling, or conning you with mortgage rates risking your home – these are things that I don’t want to read about in the comments on a post about traveling by horse through the Grand Canyon. Get comment spam protection and make your readers much happier.

3 Comments

Odd place to post this kind of a comment, but yes. I\’m logged out of my WordPress.com account right now and leaving you a comment.

In the WordPress Administration Panels of your site, go to Settings > Discussion and make sure that it is set to allow people to comment without being logged in. See You Must Be Logged In To Comment for details.

Just checked and the “requirement” to log in only comes into play when you include a registered email with WordPress.com in your comment. It asks you to log in if you are not currently logged in. Are you registered with WordPress.com with that email? Otherwise, you an comment here without being registered.

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[…] Comment spamming prevention came into play when spammers learned they could move their nasty marketing techniques to blog comments. This was also abused by every idiot gambling, drug, mortgage, music, and sex website that learned that it’s the number of links to your site that helps page ranking. Search engines got this trick fast, too, and now penalize websites for too many incoming links, plus they evaluate the incoming links to judge them on quality not just quantity. […]